Nelly Korda's new putter

It’s a universal fact in sport that the world’s leading teams and players stay at the top by constantly evolving and finding new ways to improve.

The ‘one-percenters’, as they are more commonly known, are much sought after, but rarely does the pursuit of marginal gains lead the world number one to tinker in the build up to the final major of the season.

Only on Wednesday did Nelly Korda settle on her putter for the week – a new Spider Tour X – probably the lightest club in her bag but one that has already made a huge impact.

A second successive round of 68 – bogey-free on Friday – suggests the change was a shrewd one with Korda three shots ahead of the rest at eight-under-par heading into the weekend.

“I just needed to look at something different. It rolls really nicely. I'm very pleased with it. I have no complaints,” said Korda.

“It rolls really nicely. The greens are pretty slow due to the weather here. They're rolling about a 9.4.

“I just needed something different to look at. Sometimes you just need to switch it up.

“It's been working really well. It's rolling off the face really, really well. It's my first time ever putting with a TaylorMade putter as a pro.

“I used to have one when I was in junior golf, but I've won so many times this year with the putter that I had, and I just wanted to kind of look at something different.”

Putter talk can be quite technical but Korda has kept things simple at the Old Course in her pursuit of a second major of the year, just a stone's throw from where she played her first links course at Kingsbarns.

In both rounds she has picked up birdies on the kinder par-4s – 9 and 18 – and she is three from four on the two gettable par-5s.

While the clubhouse lead at the halfway stage of the AIG Women's Open may be unchartered territory for Korda – she has finished in the top 10 in just one of her previous seven starts – she isn’t getting carried away.

“I'm just trying to stay very present and not think about anything other than one shot at a time, and whatever golf and links golf throws at me, I'm going to take it head on,” she said.

“I think when the conditions are a little tougher, in a sense, normal golf is thrown out the window and you're just trying to play the wind.

“I've won on just so many different types of grasses in different types of conditions that you just kind of always have to adapt.

“That's the same thing in tennis, same thing in life. You're always adapting to your situations at hand, and I think that's what's so fun about links golf is that you're literally starting it 30 yards left of your target.

“I'm not a fade player but I'm hitting massive fades. I think it's fun hitting these little low drivers, too. I'm having fun, and I enjoy links golf a lot. Obviously every year that I get to play it, I learn a little bit more about it too.”

But as rock-solid as Korda has been on the greens this week, she is still searching for more.

“I didn't really take advantage of the calmer conditions on my front nine, the back nine," Korda added. "But I played some really solid golf, and I'm happy with that.”